Amy Purdy (TED) great example of resilience at work

Amy Purdy lost both her legs below the knee at the age of 19. Today she is a snowboard champion.

Is this a textbook example of resilience?

Yes and no.

No because summarizing this story in one simple line (going from bad to great) makes it too easy to think of resilience as a personal heroic act.

You have personal resilience, but a story of resilience always involves outsiders and circumstances you benefit from. Here in Amy’s story it seems clear that she has a great family who supported her during her recovery. She teamed up with her leg maker to design her perfect feet for snowboarding. She does not talk about her coach(es) and trainer(s) but I am quite sure these people have been of considerable importance in this story as well.

Amy has a wonderful talent to be grateful and use and cooperate with the talents and skills of others. In coaching lingo: she was willing and able to see and make use of her resources.

In that way Amy’s story is a wonderful example of resilience. Not because of the personal heroics, but of the fact that even in challenging times people are able to do great things for each other and for themselves.

The two of them inevitably go together.